A doctor and two nurses who stayed at their posts through Hurricane Katrina and then helped evacuate a New Orleans hospital were arrested for murder on charges of giving lethal injections to four patients judged too sick to leave, the state attorney general said on Tuesday.

Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said even with the horrendous conditions in the flooded city, where thousands were stranded without food, water and basic necessities, there was no excuse for the deaths at Memorial Hospital.

"This is not euthanasia. This is plain and simple homicide," Foti told reporters. "I think the patients would have lived."

Relying on a statement from an unnamed witness, Foti described a September 1 exodus from the hospital after a decision was made to "not leave any living patients behind."

Some members of a ward of critically ill and elderly that some staff believed could not evacuate were given "lethal cocktails," he said.

Dr. Anna Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry were arrested on Monday on four counts each of principal to second-degree murder, but New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan will decide what charges, if any, to press in court.

Pou's attorney, Richard Simmons, said his client had volunteered to stay at the hospital during the storm and afterward as flood waters rose, generators died and looting broke out across the street from the hospital.

"The state of Louisiana abandoned the hospitals, doctors, the nurses and these patients," he said. "They're victims of the storm, not victims of homicide."

Investigations under way

More than 200 sick and elderly patients in area nursing homes and hospitals died in the chaotic days and weeks after the August 29 hurricane, spurring a number of investigations, some of which are still continuing, said Foti.

The arrests involve four victims injected with morphine and the sedative midazolam, he said. But there could be more arrests and more victims. Nine patients in critical care were judged unable to be evacuated, according to the witness statement, which Pou's lawyer called "just a piece of paper."

More than 2,000 people crowded into Memorial Hospital during and after Katrina. Many said conditions deteriorated quickly as temperatures rose above 38 C inside the building and the sanitation system broke down.

The four victims, who were not named but whose ages were given as 62, 67, 90 and 91, were residents of a long-term care facility within the hospital run by LifeCare Hospitals. Pou, however, was not employed by LifeCare, which originally reported the possibility of euthanasia to authorities.

In October Foti issued 73 subpoenas for hospital employees after dozens died in the medical centre. He said his office was investigating allegations ranging from abandonment of patients to euthanasia, or mercy killings, at six hospitals and 13 nursing homes in the state.

Tenet Healthcare Corp, which owns Memorial Medical Centre, said last month it intended to sell four of its five hospitals in New Orleans. On Tuesday, the company said it had struck a deal to sell three hospitals, including Memorial, to Oschner Health System.

Source: China Daily